P-bass special

Are you talking about the Fender Deluxe P Bass Special?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/515201/

 

part of name

 

No, you will call it a:
Fender P Bass Delux Special 4 String Bass (followed by your color of choice)
Print This And Take To Store To Buy
It comes with active electronics so you are good to go. That means since it is coming from Fender that it will have a nice easy access backplate where the battery for the actice electronics will be stored. Otherwise, if you bought a P bass with PASSIVE electronics, you would have to remove the strings and then remove the pickguard to get to where you would have to store the battery.
So that is solved.

Next is the pickup configuration thing and lingo:

This bass will come with ALL Fender liscensed pickups (maybe another company which they use for all their active pickups???)... The configuration of these pickups are called a P/J Pickup configuration.
The P is at the front where it looks like two pickups overlapping a bit and are mostly sided by side near the neck while the other one is a J pickup which looks like a straight line. That is the one in the back near the bridge...

What is your question regarding the bridge of the bass? Maybe this can explain what you need:

All Fender's stock bridges get the job done, but they aren't the best. Many people choose to replace the bridge as a mod.
I have a Leo Quan Badass 2 Bridge. (if you have never modded a bass before then take to a repair guy because you will need to file the saddles for the strings to sit in properly) these are heavier and better constructed bridges which give more sustain and resonance when you play and you can really feel your bass thud. even acoustically without an amp. Other types are ummm...
Gotoh (or do they just do tuners?) and stuff like that. I am clueless to what else is out there so i am not the pro for anything except the badass bridge

 

gotoh 201 or 206 bridge is a nice bolt in replacement and doesn't require a tech to install. same mass as the BAII, easy to use. Hipshot bridges are nice to, but require different drilling.

 

The Schaller 2000 is a direct drop on as well, and from what I have seen, dwarfs the quality of most of the others . . . .

http://www.schaller-guitarparts.de/1255.htm

Bought mine from Allparts. Not terribly cheap, but worth it, at least to me . . .

- Tim

 

I get a ton of my stuff on ebay.
I got a brand new Leo Quan Bad Ass II bridge on there for like $70 i think. The problem is that there is no spot for the strings to sit in the saddles. When you buy the bridge you will need to file little spots for the strings to rest in. Best done by a pro guy, just pay him to do it for you if you dont want to mess it up. I did it myself and saved the cash though.

Sorry about the link. Just go to the place you posted on musicians Freind and you can get what i was trying to post.

Don't base the backplates mean active electronics thing because it isnt always true. Every bass is different. Some are passive but have a spot behind the knobs to install the passive electronics. Others have the same thing but for active electronics and a battery in there as well. Other basses have 2 separate spots, one for the battery and one for the electronics.

Fenders are a pain because if i were to install active pickups on my p-bass then i would have to find a spot to put the battery BEHIND the pick guard. That means if my bass takes a dump on me, i would have to remove my strings and unscrew the pickguard to replace the battery.

See why the spot on the back of the bass is a good place to put the battery for Fenders?

 

From this website: "The Active P Bass Special has a modern “C” shape Jazz neck, an alder Precision bass body, one Jazz and one Precision pickup, plus active 3-band EQ – all U.S. electronic components. Add it all up and you've got a great-feeling bass with worlds of tonal possibilities."

I recommend you stop saying "active electronics". It is more correct to say that the pickups are passive, and it has an active on-board preamp. Yes, you will have to change the battery. That bass has a neat plastic battery pocket on the back.

If you search ebay for [active fender bass], you will see several. Some have a picture of the back of the bass where you can see what the battery location looks like. One right now, Item 7373754039. I think yours will look like that.

You may be interested in this link:

http://www.electrohill.co.uk/acatalog/info_3062.html

Oh. Just found this picture of the schaller bass bridge:

 

I just finished putting a Bad Ass II onto my MIM P-bass. Quit an improvement over the stock Fender part and of a much higher quality.

I found a source, http://bestbassgear.com/badass-bridge.htm, where you can buy a slotted Bad Ass II. It cost s a few pennies more but if you bring it to a repair guy to put in the slots you are going to pay him. So I figured I would just order the one I wanted.

Install was very easy as it was a direct replacement. I am a banjo player so installing a new bridge did not scare me but I had never done one on an electric bass before. It took me about 30 minutes of adjusting and readjusting but I finally got the saddles where I wanted them such that the intonation and harmonics were right. It was easier than a banjo.

It looks great on the p-bass and is very solid, I had no neck adjustments to make at all, but I have heard a few people had to shim their neck.